turkey, of course, borders syria and thousands of rebels and refugees from syria have fled to turkey for safety. >>> president obama and house speaker john boehner meeting for nearly an hour yesterday evening in a fiscal cliff showdown. with 18 days remaining before we go over the edge, both sides are saying that "lines of communication remain open." most of us have been stressing over the thousands of extra dollars you may have to fork over to uncle sam next year. along with sequestration come sweeping spending cuts, too. here's cnn pentagon correspondent chris lawrence. >> reporter: to hear the pentagon tell it -- >> sequestration, therefore, if it were allowed to happen, would introduce senseless chaos. >> reporter: the fiscal cliff -- >> sequestration will have a chaotic infect on the force. is akin to armageddon. >> what i worry about is being blindsided by a huge cut because they don't have the strength or the courage or the guts to do what they have to do. >> happy holidays. >> reporter: the cliff would cut $500 billion in defense spending but spread out over the next ten year